Application & Screening Fee Laws by State
What a landlord may charge someone applying for a rental — application fees, tenant-screening charges, receipts, refunds, disclosure duties, reusable screening reports, and holding deposits — with every state verified against official statutes. Each row shows its own verified date, and each state links to the full rules with citations.
Coverage: 36 of 50 states so far. This topic is being built out state by state; a state appears here once its rules have been verified against the official statute. The other topics on this site cover all 50 states.
State law on rental application fees ranges from no cap at all to an outright ban: this comparison currently covers 36 of the 50 states, each verified against its official statutes, and more states are added as they are verified.
| State | Application fee rule | Actual-cost limit | Receipt | Refund | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| California verified August 25, 2026 | Two limits apply at once: the fee may not exceed the landlord's actual out-of-pocket cost of gathering the applicant's information, and in no case may it exceed a base of $30 per applicant, which the landlord may raise annually in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index running from January 1, 1998. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Colorado verified August 25, 2026 | No dollar cap, but a rental application fee may not exceed the landlord's cost of processing the application, and no application fee at all may be charged when the applicant supplies a portable tenant screening report. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Connecticut verified August 26, 2026 | No fee may be charged for processing, reviewing or accepting a rental application. | No | Yes | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Delaware verified August 25, 2026 | The greater of 10% of one month's rent or $50, and in no case more than the specific cost of the credit or other investigation, so the lower of the two figures controls. | Yes | Yes | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Florida verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Illinois verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Indiana verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Iowa verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Kansas verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Kentucky verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Louisiana verified August 26, 2026 | No dollar cap. | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Maine verified August 26, 2026 | Application fees are banned. | Yes | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Maryland verified August 25, 2026 | No dollar ceiling on the amount charged, but a $25 threshold makes the money refundable. | Yes | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Massachusetts verified August 25, 2026 | No application fee is permitted. | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Michigan verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Minnesota verified August 25, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Missouri verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Montana verified August 26, 2026 | No dollar cap on the amount charged. | Yes | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Nebraska verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| New Hampshire verified August 26, 2026 | No dollar cap. | Yes | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| New Jersey verified August 26, 2026 | $50 is the most a landlord or their agent may charge to apply for a residential rental, counting every fee charged for the same application. | No | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| New York verified August 25, 2026 | No application or processing fee is permitted. | Yes | Yes | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| North Dakota verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Ohio verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Oklahoma verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Oregon verified August 25, 2026 | Cost-based ceiling rather than a dollar cap. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Pennsylvania verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Rhode Island verified August 26, 2026 | Rental application fees are banned. | Yes | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| South Carolina verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| South Dakota verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Texas verified August 26, 2026 | No statutory cap | No | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Vermont verified August 25, 2026 | Banned: a landlord or a landlord's agent may not charge an application fee to anyone applying to enter into a rental agreement for a residential dwelling unit. | No | Not required | Not required | Full rules & citations |
| Virginia verified August 25, 2026 | $50, plus the landlord's actual out-of-pocket cost for third-party background, credit, or other pre-occupancy checks; the ceiling is $32 where the unit is a public housing unit or is otherwise regulated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. | Yes | Not required | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Washington verified August 25, 2026 | No flat dollar cap, but a landlord may charge a prospective tenant only the costs incurred in obtaining a tenant screening report, and a landlord who screens in-house may charge only actual costs, which may not exceed the customary costs charged by a screening service in the general area. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
| Wisconsin verified August 25, 2026 | No separate dollar cap on an application fee as such, but a charge for a nationwide consumer credit report is limited to the landlord's actual cost, up to $25, and a background check charge is limited the same way but may be imposed only on an applicant who is not a Wisconsin resident. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full rules & citations |
The application-fee column shows each state's lead rule in one sentence — several states pair a cap with separate screening-charge rules, and the linked state page carries the full rule, every condition, and the citations.
No figure appears here unless it was verified against official state sources on the date shown — see how we verify.